Obama reportedly picks Kagan for high court

WASHINGTON (JTA) — President Obama reportedly will nominate Elena Kagan to the U.S. Supreme Court, bringing the number of Jewish justices to three.

Kagan, 50, currently the U.S. solicitor general and a former dean of Harvard Law School, is the president’s pick, NBC News reported Sunday evening.

Kagan, a New York City native, would join Stephen Breyer and Ruth Bader Ginsburg as Jewish justices. She also would raise the total of women on the court to three, with Ginsburg and Obama’s choice to fill his first vacancy, last year, with Sonia Sotomayor, also a New Yorker.

Kagan likely would not face Republican opposition in U.S. Senate confirmation hearings. A number of leading conservatives have endorsed her as a moderate.

As dean at Harvard Law, Kagan sought to redress what she perceived as an ideological imbalance by hiring conservative professors.

Jewish groups that have surveyed the likely picks — Obama reportedly was down to four — have been enthusiastic about the prospect of a Kagan candidacy.

Kagan would replace John Paul Stevens, a liberal stalwart who is retiring at 90.